31/08/2011 | US - Michele Bachmann's hurricane comments were only a joke, she says

Reuters Staff

The Republican presidential hopeful raised eyebrows with her comments that the weather was God's way of warning politicians.

The Republican White House hopeful Michele Bachmann has
insisted she was joking when she said a hurricane and quake were God's warning
to Washington, in an effort to control the damage from her latest controversial
comments.

The Tea Party favourite raised eyebrows with a weekend
remark to supporters in Florida that Hurricane Irene, which killed at least 24
people and left millions without power, and an east coast earthquake were God's
way of telling US politicians to cut spending and fix the budget deficit.

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the
attention of the politicians. We've
had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start
listening to me here?' " Bachmann said at a campaign event in Sarasota on
Sunday.

"Listen
to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They
know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the
spending."

Bachmann,
among the top three candidates seen to have a chance to win the Republican
nomination and take on President Barack Obama next year, made similar comments
elsewhere in Florida on Saturday, drawing some laughs from her audience.

When the
remarks began drawing attention, she went into damage control. "Of course
I was being humorous when I said that. It would be absurd to think it was
anything else," Bachmann said on Monday on a campaign stop in Miami.
"I am a person who loves humour, I have a great sense of humour."

The hurricane
drenched Vermont and caused the worst flooding in the state for 80 years. The
5.8-magnitude earthquake, a rare occurrence on the East Coast, shook up
Washington and did minor damage to the Capitol building and the Washington
Monument.

Many
comments by Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, have come under scrutiny since
she surged towards the head of the Republican election race over the summer.

During
her campaign in June, she declared that the celebrated American actor John
Wayne was from her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, when in fact he was born 150
miles away.

She has
also been quizzed about a remark that suggested wives should be submissive to
their husbands, and in a recent speech she confused Elvis 's birthday with the
anniversary of his death.

Bachmann
told her Miami audience on Monday that if she were elected president, "you
won't see any teleprompter in the White House". She criticised Obama for
using one in speeches.

Bachmann
is popular in the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement and with religious
social conservatives. She won an important poll in the early voting state of
Iowa earlier this month, but recent surveys have shown her lagging behind the
Texas governor, Rick Perry, and the moderate Mitt Romney.

A CNN
poll on Monday put her in fourth place among Republicans, with 9%, and behind
the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who has not declared her candidacy.

Bachmann
seems to be fighting Perry for the same kind of conservative Republican voters
and falling behind.

Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak said her Irene
comment reflected a dilemma for the Minnesotan, that she has to shift right to
regain her footing against Perry but, in doing so, she raises questions about
whether she is electable.